Escape From New York
JOHN CARPENTER: THE SHAPE OF DREAD, PART IV
After HALLOWEEN and THE FOG made him bankable, John Carpenter pulled an old, cynical script out of his trunk and ended up defining a decade of dystopian action almost by accident. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was his chance to smash the urban rot of late-70s America against the wide-open lawlessness of a classic Western. He brought his ELVIS star Kurt Russell along for the ride, killing off Russell's squeaky-clean Disney image for good and handing horror and action fans an anti-authority icon in Snake Plissken. We track the production from the burned-out rubble of East St. Louis standing in for Manhattan, to the low-budget effects work of a then-unknown James Cameron. Carpenter had his biggest budget yet, but the future he built was mostly smoke, mirrors, and a city that was already halfway there.
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Credits
Directed by John Carpenter
Screenplay by John Carpenter | Nick Castle
Starring Kurt Russell | Lee Van Cleef | Ernest Borgnine | Donald Pleasence | Isaac Hayes | Harry Dean Stanton | Adrienne Barbeau
Music by John Carpenter | Alan Howarth
Cinematography by Dean Cundey
Edited by Todd Ramsay
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Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne & Justin Bishop.
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